Running a Pop-up Demonstration Project

Pop-ups and pilots are all ways of temporarily demonstrating the value of a walk-bike project in your community without having to commit to it long term. Pilots typically last for at least one year and pop-ups for a shorter amount of time, typically a week or less. Both use low cost, non-permanent materials such as planters, flexible bollards, spray chalk and cones to temporarily reconfigure the street. Survey and observational data can be collected before and after the demonstration to help decision-makers understand project benefits and impacts.

Open Streets BTV is an opportunity to experience our public streetscape in an entirely different way. For one day every summer about 3 miles of Burlington streets are closed to everything but pedestrian access for a day of biking, walking, dancing, and whatever else you can imagine!

As part of the Downtown-Basin Master Plan public input process, the City of Vergennes and its community partners held a series of pop-up demonstration projects to illustrate how the streets connecting Downtown and the Basin could be made safer and more walk and bike friendly. Partners and volunteers used spray chalk and traffic cones to demonstrate the concepts below:

bike lanes

curb extensions/bulb‐ outs

gateways

pedestrian refuge islands

In addition, an information kiosk, which has long been recommended, was constructed in Falls Park.

An information tent at the Vergennes Green provided project information and allowed observers to share their reactions to the demonstrations with staff and Steering Committee members. Along with input gathered during the walking tours, this feedback provided the basis for the Issues and Recommendations for the Downtown-Basin Master Plan.

The demonstration projects were helpful because they offered “proof of concept” of the feasibility of the preliminary recommendations, for example, that there is enough roadway width to accommodate bicycle lanes, and that curb extensions work to slow driving speeds and increase pedestrian visibility.

Near the end of summer 2017, the Town of Middlebury, Local Motion, Better MiddleburyPartnership, Middlebury Safe Routes, and Addison County Regional Planning Commission embarked on a collaboration to create safer and slower streets throughout town.

What was it? Volunteers set up a series of pop-up demonstration projects in Downtown Middlebury designed to test strategies for improving bike and pedestrian safety in some core areas, as well as enhancing the aesthetic appeal of the Downtown, particularly for people outside of their cars. These pop-ups were not permanent and were meant to serve merely as a demonstration project for us to collect input and observe what works and what does not, should the town consider more permanent strategies for street improvements in the future.

Pop-ups were installed at the following locations:

Seymour Street, between former Gregg’s Market and Main Street - temporary crosswalks and curb bumpouts installed

Maple Street entering the Marbleworks - Created a protected "pedestrian advisory lane" in the absence of sidewalks along this busy walking street.

Merchant’s Row and Main Street - curb bump outs installed to shorten the pedestrian crossing distance and to make pedestrians more visible.